The WordPress/JetPack writing prompt for today is:
What’s a Piece of Technology You’re Convinced Will Exist in 20 Years?

I’ve been thinking Sam Neill thoughts since learning of his passing. This has led me to focus on one of his lessor known movies, “Until The End of The World” (released in 1991).

And it’s funny how that reflection resonates with this prompt. The film is a good example of a William Gibson’s quote that I like, “The future is already here, it’s just not distributed evenly.”

In the film, a bounty hunter (Sam Neill) is pursuing a woman and a man who possess smart glasses that allow blind people to see (this was filmed 35 years ago).

The first time I ran into technology that I hadn’t seen before was when I moved from Canada to South Korea. It’s a small thing, but for electricity conservation, escalators only ran when people were on them or approaching them. I know this is widely used now, but in 2004, I hadn’t experienced it in North America.

Later, in 2007, I moved to rural Namibia, where the future was not being distributed. Today, I know people in southern and eastern Africa who use drones to deliver medicine to widely scattered communities.

So, if we’re the cutting edge of technology and not just a lost corner of it, what technologies would I expect to see emerge in the next twenty years?

I feel like technologically and socially, we’re either on the verge of an amazing renaissance or total collapse.

Optimistically, I’d expect to see great advances in mRNA vaccines and treatment. Cancer should become more preventable and manageable along with diseases of aging.

If AI survives at all, I’d expect it would be miniaturized in its footprint, becoming highly regulated as both a personal tool and a personal responsibility.

It would be nice to think we’d develop a sustainable nuclear fusion energy source, but given the efficiencies of solar and wind, overcoming both the technical and political issues of nuclear energy may make it unattractive to pursue.

I don’t expect flying cars to ever happen. Their common usage would be dependent upon humans behaving rationally and you know that’s never going to happen.

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Some final notes on the Film Until the End of the World:

The film, directed by German director Win Wenders (Wings of Desire) has a very Kubrick tone to it and rewards patience (the original director’s cut was 20 hours long, the commercially released cut was 150 minutes.).

The soundtrack to the movie is best known for U2’s titular track, but my favorite tracks are T Bone Burnett’s Humans from Earth and Jane Siberry & k d lang’s version of Calling All Angels.